Why Trump’s Muslim Travel Ban Isn’t Affecting Aziz Ansari’s Family

Nearly two years after the premiere of Master of None, Aziz Ansari has finally returned for a second season of his semi-autobiographical comedy—which he stars in, writes, and directs.

“We took a long break to make sure the stories we had in Season 2 were equally interesting and honest and real like in Season 1,” Ansari said at the show’s premiere in New York Thursday night, held at the School of Visual Arts Theatre. “Season 2 covers so much stuff, like religion and what it’s like for someone who is gay to come out to their parents. This season is even more personalized. We can only write about what is true to us, and because I am of Indian ethnicity, it comes off as real. But there’s no true representation in TV and movies, and that’s still a big part of the problem. Everybody isn’t a straight white guy, like in most movies and TV shows. I’m a brown guy, and I wanted to reflect the real world and my personal experiences in the show.”

Ansari co-wrote and co-created Master of None with his best pal Alan Yang, a writer on Ansari’s old show, Parks and Recreation. The two won an Emmy for best writing for a comedy series last September for an episode titled “Parents,” which focused on the relationship between immigrant parents and their children. In Season 2, Yang and Ansari have written a similar episode titled “Religion,” which focuses on Ansari’s hilarious attempts to hide his pork-eating diet from his Muslim parents.

“Aziz grew up in a Muslim family, and the episode addresses what it’s like to be Muslim,” said Yang. “It shows a different perspective that we haven’t seen on TV before. Our show isn’t designed to be preachy, but if someone happens to watch and it makes them think differently about other cultures and religions, then great. We just try to depict our world and show people the stuff that we are going through. It just so happens that we are an Asian guy and an Indian guy.”

“Religion” was written and filmed before President Trump’s proposal to ban citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries from traveling into the United States. Ansari, who is no longer religious, sarcastically joked about the controversial plan when asked if he would be affected by it.

“It hasn’t affected my family or me. I’m famous, so people are nice to me,” Ansari quipped. “So I have the most atypical experience. What he is proposing is prejudice to a new level.”

Yang would like to invite Trump to watch the “Religion” episode, so that he could understand that “Muslims are people too” and that “they are not just a faceless horde,” he said. “They are all individuals; specific human beings, and you can’t paint them all with the same brush the same way you can’t paint all billion Christians with the same brush. It’s not that hard to understand.”

Inauguration Crowd-Size Debacle

It took less than two days after his inauguration for Trump to hit his first speed bump. After photos revealed a drastically smaller crowd at Trump’s inauguration than at Obama’s first, Trump griped about the coverage during a speech at the C.I.A., and claimed that “a million and a half people” showed up. He later backed down from the remarks, but not before two things happened. First, the world was introduced to Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, whose first, apoplectic, rumpled press briefing became a flashpoint of its own. And second, Trump aide Kellyanne Conway introduced “alternative facts” into the lexicon.

Courts Block Trump Immigration Ban, Part I

In its unanimous ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate Trump’s original controversial executive order on immigration, which would have suspended travel by non-U.S. citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries. In a rebuke of the White House, the court argued that the travel ban violated due process and was based on religious discrimination.

Photo: by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images.

Comrade Mike Flynn Resigns

Less than one month into Trump’s presidency, his national security adviser, Mike Flynn,resigned in scandal after it was revealed that he had discussed the sanctions against Moscow with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before the inauguration—contrary to what he told White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence. Flynn has remained a primary character in the enduring Trump-Russia melodrama—most recently coming under scrutiny for failing to disclose payments from the Russian and Turkish governments before joining the Trump administration.

Photo: by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

Jeff Sessions Gets Ensnared

Facing escalating pressure on Capitol Hill after it was reported that he met with Sergey Kislyak—the man at center of Flynn’s downfall—twice last year, U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessionsrecused himself from the ongoing F.B.I. probe into the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russian government. Sessions’s announcement reportedly blindsided and infuriated Trump, prompting him leave Stephen Bannon and Reince Priebus behind when he took off for Mar-a-Lago.

Photo: By NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images.

Sanctuary Cities E.O. Blocked

A few months after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals shot down his travel ban, Trump lashed out at another judge who blocked the administration from stripping federal funding from cities that did not comply with anti-immigration laws. The judge who ruled in the case was not a circuit judge—William Orrick, in fact, is a district judge—but that didn’t stop Trump from threatening to break up the Ninth Circuit altogether, a pre-emptive strike as an appeal of Orrick’s ruling could end up in the circuit court.

Photo: By NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images.

Health-Care Failure, Part II

Once Trump seemingly realized the gravity of his failure to pass a health-care reform bill in the House, the White House quietly tried to resurrect the zombie “Trumpcare” bill as it scrambled to secure a legislative win for Trump before the 100-day mark. The effort failed again—miserably.

Photo: SAUL LOEB

Trump Realizes That The Presidency Is Hard

This was not so much one defining moment, as it was a slow buildup of smaller moments: that time he realized repealing and replacing Obamacare would be difficult (“Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.” That time he realized that China could not curb the nuclear threat of North Korea by itself (“After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy”). But what started off as a Politico report about the frustrations of our president, grew and grew over the past three months and culminated in the perfect statement, given to Reuters, on Day 98: “I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”

Photo: From Getty Images.

Inauguration Crowd-Size Debacle

It took less than two days after his inauguration for Trump to hit his first speed bump. After photos revealed a drastically smaller crowd at Trump’s inauguration than at Obama’s first, Trump griped about the coverage during a speech at the C.I.A., and claimed that “a million and a half people” showed up. He later backed down from the remarks, but not before two things happened. First, the world was introduced to Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, whose first, apoplectic, rumpled press briefing became a flashpoint of its own. And second, Trump aide Kellyanne Conway introduced “alternative facts” into the lexicon.

Courts Block Trump Immigration Ban, Part I

In its unanimous ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate Trump’s original controversial executive order on immigration, which would have suspended travel by non-U.S. citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries. In a rebuke of the White House, the court argued that the travel ban violated due process and was based on religious discrimination.

by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images.

Comrade Mike Flynn Resigns

Less than one month into Trump’s presidency, his national security adviser, Mike Flynn,resigned in scandal after it was revealed that he had discussed the sanctions against Moscow with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before the inauguration—contrary to what he told White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence. Flynn has remained a primary character in the enduring Trump-Russia melodrama—most recently coming under scrutiny for failing to disclose payments from the Russian and Turkish governments before joining the Trump administration.

by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

Jeff Sessions Gets Ensnared

Facing escalating pressure on Capitol Hill after it was reported that he met with Sergey Kislyak—the man at center of Flynn’s downfall—twice last year, U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessionsrecused himself from the ongoing F.B.I. probe into the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russian government. Sessions’s announcement reportedly blindsided and infuriated Trump, prompting him leave Stephen Bannon and Reince Priebus behind when he took off for Mar-a-Lago.

By NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images.

Courts Block Trump Immigration Ban, Part II

Just hours before the Trump administration’s revised travel ban was set to take effect, a federal judge in Hawaii ruled that the intent of the updated executive order was religious discrimination. The judge used Trump’s own discriminatory words and those of White House aide Stephen Miller to sink the presidential order.

Pool

Trump Wiretapping Fiasco

When Trump tweeted the outrageous claim that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower—saying it was “Nixon/Watergate” and calling for an investigation into claims he had seen on Fox News—Washington spiraled into an unofficial crisis. Great Britain became furious when Sean Spicer accused the country of complicity in the wiretapping, and Germany wasn’t pleased about being dragged into it, either. Members of congressional intelligence committees refuted Trump’s claims, as did F.B.I. director James Comey. The scandal only went away because Trump never followed through on his threats, having seemingly forgotten about it.

by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

James Comey’s Bombshell Testimony

F.B.I. director James Comey offered a stunning rebuke of a sitting president when he confirmed the existence of a Justice Department probe into the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russian government during a brutal five-hour testimony before Congress in March.

By Aaron P. Bernstein/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Health-Care Failure, Part I

After a tumultuous 48 hours in which Paul Ryan and the White House tried and failed spectacularly to get enough support for its incredibly unpopular and flawed Obamacare repeal bill—despite an ultimatum from Trump. “It’s enough already,” the president conceded after the Speaker of the House canceled the vote on the legislation in an embarrassing blow to Trump.

by Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Bannon Punted off the National Security Council

Political observers were shocked when it was announced that Steve Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart turned senior political adviser to Trump, had been granted a spot on the National Security Council at the expense of other, more traditionally senior positions. “Bannon will exercise authority no political adviser has had before. He will be a full participant, not an observer, in national security deliberations,” said David Axelrod, formerly an Obama senior adviser who attended, but did not participate, in N.S.C. meetings. “Under the president's announced structure, Bannon has eclipsed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of National Intelligence on the National Security Council.” It took several weeks before Trump reversed this decision, restoring the council to its normal state. The president was reportedly furious that Bannon had appeared to undercut him by finagling a spot on the council.

by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Sanctuary Cities E.O. Blocked

A few months after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals shot down his travel ban, Trump lashed out at another judge who blocked the administration from stripping federal funding from cities that did not comply with anti-immigration laws. The judge who ruled in the case was not a circuit judge—William Orrick, in fact, is a district judge—but that didn’t stop Trump from threatening to break up the Ninth Circuit altogether, a pre-emptive strike as an appeal of Orrick’s ruling could end up in the circuit court.

By NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images.

Health-Care Failure, Part II

Once Trump seemingly realized the gravity of his failure to pass a health-care reform bill in the House, the White House quietly tried to resurrect the zombie “Trumpcare” bill as it scrambled to secure a legislative win for Trump before the 100-day mark. The effort failed again—miserably.

SAUL LOEB

Trump Realizes That The Presidency Is Hard

This was not so much one defining moment, as it was a slow buildup of smaller moments: that time he realized repealing and replacing Obamacare would be difficult (“Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.” That time he realized that China could not curb the nuclear threat of North Korea by itself (“After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy”). But what started off as a Politico report about the frustrations of our president, grew and grew over the past three months and culminated in the perfect statement, given to Reuters, on Day 98: “I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”